


As It Should Be

by pirateherokillian (Pirateherokillian)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 12:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17601584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pirateherokillian/pseuds/pirateherokillian
Summary: Alice Jones has a very set idea of how her life with her papa should be. Written for Wish Hook Week 2018.





	As It Should Be

**Author's Note:**

> This is a KnightRook fic that features Captain Swan. If you have an issue with either of those, this fic is not for you. Otherwise, I hope everyone else enjoys!

It always had been just her and her Papa. **  
**

Okay, so Uncle Liam too. But Uncle Liam was strict and unfun, whereas Papa was funny and carefree. Always up for an adventure. He wasn’t always blathering on about homework and responsibility and blah, blah, blah.

No, Papa was… well, hers. All hers to have to herself in their little loft apartment above Uncle Liam’s bar. It was like their own little sanctuary, an enchanted tower where he and her could just…  _be_  (and sometimes Uncle Liam too, when he wasn’t  _being_  such a boring grown up).

They were an unstoppable pair, her and Papa. A knight and rook together on the ever changing chessboard that was the outside world. She would go to school, usually… sometimes, and he would sing in the bar a lot of nights, sometimes coming in at the wee hours of the morning smelling like rum and cigarette smoke. But it always came back to just the pair of them, Alice and her Papa.

It was the way she liked it.

The only way it should be.

—–

She was almost certain she didn’t like the new counselor at her school, when she was there to see her.

Too nosy, too intrusive.

So what if her and Papa lived above Uncle Liam’s bar? So what if Papa sometimes drank a little more than most people? Why did a lady who dressed nice and looked pretty every day care how her and Papa got by? Nobody had ever cared before. Not except Uncle Liam, who seemed perfectly okay with how things were. And that was enough for Alice, so why did the pretty lady care at all? It wasn’t her business.

But she tried to make it her business any chance she got, and Alice didn’t like it one bit.

Swans had no place with knights and rooks anyway.

—–

Papa didn’t like the Swan lady either. Alice gathered as much from the way he was pacing around their tiny kitchen, mouthing off to Uncle Liam.

“Who’s she to tell me she’s concerned for  _my_  daughter’s wellbeing? Just because she got some fancy degree, she think she has any authority over what’s right and wrong here?!”

Alice nodded in agreement, though they couldn’t see her. She wasn’t supposed to be here at all, but she couldn’t just be expected to go downstairs and do her homework now, could she? No, no. She was gonna sit on these steps just beyond their still-open loft door and feel pride in knowing she was right to not like the Swan lady.

“I am a good father, damn it. I may not be raising my girl in the most conventional means, but I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got. Is that a crime?”

No, it wasn’t. She was fine. They were all fine. And nothing was gonna change that, not some Swan or otherwise.

“I’m… I’m not screwing her up too much, right Liam?”

Alice scowled at the hesitation in her Papa’s voice.

She was  _definitely_  certain she didn’t like the Swan lady now.

—–

Another day, another grown up talk Alice was not supposed to be hearing, but she couldn’t help herself. She wished she could, but Uncle Liam had always said she was too curious for her own good.

Now she  _really_  wished she wasn’t.

“She had a kid at sixteen, too. A boy, couple years younger than Alice. Been raising him on her own from the start. She… she understands, Liam.”

The awe in Papa’s voice as he talks about  _her_ , of all people, was just too much.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all.

—–

It had always been just him and her, a knight and a rook…

Until it wasn’t.

She felt disappointment every time he went to stay with her, wherever it was that she stayed. Alice didn’t care where it was, just that Papa chose that more often than he should (any time was more often than he should).

She felt betrayal when he brought _her_ to their home, their special place meant only for him and Alice.

And then he did it again, and again, and again…

And it seemed the knight thought Swans do have a place where Alice was certain they don’t.

—–

She ran.

She knew she wasn’t ever supposed to, but she did.

It was too much.

Her Papa and the Swan lady were just too much.

—–

He had sobs to match her own when she finally went back.

And apologies.

And promises that he won’t see the Swan lady ever again.

She felt like their world would finally get back to normal. Just the two of them, and sometimes Uncle Liam, once again.

—–

It  _was_  just the two of them, and sometimes Uncle Liam, once again.

But it wasn’t right.

Papa wasn’t funny anymore. Papa wasn’t carefree anymore.

He still sang, but it was sad.

He still provided everything he could for her, in any way he could, but it struck her on night when Papa went to bed even before she did yet again, the same sad look in his eyes that had been there since the Swan lady stopped coming, that he hadn’t done much for himself in all that time.

Papa had always made every sacrifice for her, and Alice realized this time she may have asked him to give up too much.

—–

_“I messed up!”_

_Emma looked up abruptly, taking in the tear-stained face of Alice Jones, as the young woman stood panting in her now open office doorway. “Alice?” She rose, hands firmly planted on the paper-littered desk in front of her. “What do you mean you-”_

_Alice moved into the office complete, wringing her hands together frantically. “I messed up. I thought it was meant to be just the pair of us. But it’s all wrong now. I messed him up and I want to fix it.”_

_Stepping around her desk, Emma reached out a gentle hand towards the now sobbing girl. “Okay, okay…” She soothed, leading Alice with the hand now on her shoulder to the couch tucked up under the window. “Why don’t you slow down for a moment and explain what, and who, you think you messed up? Maybe I can help?”_

_“You can!” Alice whispered  urgently. “You’re the only one who can.”_

_“Alright, and how am I supposed to help-”_

_“He loves you!” Alice blurted, fresh tears starting to fall. “He loves you and I get that now and I’m sorry I didn’t before. You made him better, far better than he ever was, and I didn’t mean to break him. I just… I’m sorry! Please fix it!”_

_Alice collapsed against Emma, who sat in shock for a moment as the harried words finally sunk in. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around her, holding her close as she told her everything was gonna be okay._

—–

It always had been just her and her Papa.

Until it wasn’t, once again.

A knight and rook added a Swan - two, actually, because of course now there was Henry, who liked adventures just as much as Alice.

And the way it made Papa smile made her appreciate this is the way it should really be.

And maybe Alice did like it a lot. Maybe she loved it.

Especially when Emma was the only person she felt she could talk to about the pretty new girl at their school who was really good with arrows…

(Maybe a knight, a rook, two swans, and sometimes Uncle Liam, had room for a robin too?)

**Author's Note:**

> There _could_ be more added to this story down the line... Also, if you'd like to check out the gifset that went with this story, it's [here](http://pirateherokillian.tumblr.com/post/170782113863/wish-hook-week-day-7-au-canon-divergence-as) on my Tumblr.


End file.
